Kangaroos and your vehicle

I ran into a bloody Kangaroo last night. It was awful. I was about 15 minutes out of my home town in Central-West New South Wales, and the bugger hopped right out in front of me. Every single moment was horrific, sad and expensive.

The second I saw it standing on the other side of the road to which I was driving, I just knew I was going to hit it. I naturally put my foot on the break as I watched it bound across the road. I could see immediately that there was absolutely no way in the world that this Kangaroo was getting out of this alive. The timing of my vehicle and its leaps were just too impeccable.

As I neared it, I probably only managed to drop about 50-60km off my original speed before making a little squeak to accompany my cringe and then THUD. The poor kangaroo went flying forward and I was left with a devastating view of an injured kangaroo through the chunks of kangaroo fur floating in the headlights.

I think I said "Ohhhh nooooo," and my heart was racing a million miles an hour. Being with Julz was great because he is sweet and supportive, but with him having lived in a country that doesn't have kangaroo warning signs on the road, for most of his life, I didn't feel he was really in a position of knowledge on next steps. I was on the phone to my dad within seconds and asking him what I had to do with this poor animal who was obviously in horrendous pain (I will not go into the graphic details because it isn't nice).
Dad suggested ways to put it out of its misery but I'm afraid by the time we built up enough courage to take action, the kangaroo had perished, and so had its baby (insert sad face).

I of course balled my eyes out after my adrenalin rush subsided - it was a bit much for 6pm on a Sunday night.
A nice country boy with a very serious face and temperament stopped his truck in front of ours, which was still ticking away with it's hazard lights on, and he pulled the kangaroo off the road for us (and anyone else who may have got a surprise speed bump), checked that the baby wasn't breathing and bid us good day.

Now that the drama of a wounded kangaroo on the road was finished (but not forgotten) I realised I could potentially have another serious problem at hand. What about the vehicle I was driving?
I was driving my mum's partner, Mark's, bright yellow ute (apparently utes are very Australian, so for those of you who do not know of the ute, it is a utility work vehicle which tends to have a tray on the back for transporting large objects) and this ute is a city ute and is not equipped with a 'roo bar' - a strong metal bar attached to the front of the vehicle to redirect damage in situations such as my current one.
I looked at the ute and it appeared to be missing its front grill, but fortunately the radiator which lives behind said grill was still in tact and the car didn't seem to be overheating. My brother kindly advised me over the limited telephone reception, that it should be fine as long as it wasn't a particularly busy night for bugs who would be inclined to bake on the radiator.

To cut a long story short so that I can move back on to the subject of menacing road kangaroos, I have to pay $500 in excess for the yellow utility vehicle to be fixed by an insurance company (insert mad face).

So what is the story behind our national emblem being such a deadly nuisance on the road? 

The kangaroo and its smaller kin, the wallaby are notorious for hopping onto the road and not only endangering their own lives but also the lives of those behind the wheel.

These bouncing bundles of problem account for 60% of fatalities and 40% of injuries in accidents involving animals in my friendly home state of NSW. (http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2948/kangaroos-are-menace-aussie-drivers)

The problem is that drivers will often swerve their car to avoid hitting the animal and then find themselves wrapped around something much bigger and badder, like a tree, instead. It is common law among those who know the dos and don'ts in generating road kill, that you DO NOT swerve to miss said victim. You have a much better chance of getting out unharmed by hitting the animal front on. Luckily for me, I am not naturally inclined to swerve. My natural inclination is to hit the breaks and make "ohh nooo" facial expressions. I think I can just feel the dangers of a swerve at such speeds.

According to the article referenced above, a study found that kangaroo hitting is most likely to occur between dusk and dawn, when kangaroos are out looking for a graze and they tend to be more frequent in the colder months and on weekends. So I am pleased and not pleased to say that I ticked off all the boxes required for a likely kangaroo crash. I'm not really sure about the weekend statistic though - why would they be busier on weekends? They don't have any sense of 'day of week'. They don't go out shopping for their groceries on a Sunday night or bounce over to their mate's place to watch True Blood.

I believe the main reason kangaroos get all up in your grill (literally) is because they become blinded by the headlights of a vehicle, freak out and hop back in direction that they came from. It really is a frequent problem on Australian roads and people from the country just aren't big advocated of the kangaroo for this reason. Many country folk will fit their vehicles with 'Roo Bars', also known as 'Bull bars' just to avoid the $500 excess fee I've been punched in the face with.

After living in the country and trawling those roads for over 23 years, your would have thought that I would have known to drive a little slower at dusk. But noooooo.

I ended up leaving the scene feeling very wounded inside, a little bit shaky and a little worried about failing to locate the piece of grill that fell off the front of the car.